Related papers: Evidence for a New Elliptical-Galaxy Paradigm: Ser…
The Nuker law was designed to match the inner few (~3-10) arcseconds of predominantly nearby (< 30 Mpc) early-type galaxy light-profiles; it was never intended to describe an entire profile. The Sersic model, on the other hand, was…
The inner and outer shapes and orientations of core-Sersic galaxies may hold important clues to their formation and evolution. We have therefore measured the central and outer ellipticities and position angles for a sample of 24 core-Sersic…
We have modelled the inner surface brightness profiles of 39 alleged `core' galaxies with the core-Sersic model, and provide new physical parameters for the largest ever sample of `core' galaxies fit with this model. When present,…
New surface brightness profiles from 26 early-type galaxies with partially depleted cores have been extracted from the full radial extent of HST images, giving us a total sample of 31 such core-Sersic galaxies. We have carefully quantified…
Surface photometry of 311 ellipticals from the 2MASS imaging database is analyzed with respect to the two most common fitting functions; the r^1/4 law and the Sersic r^1/n model. The advantages and disadvantages of each fitting function are…
New measurements of the stellar-mass deficits at the centers of luminous elliptical galaxies are presented. These were derived considering the following observational facts. Firstly, ``core'' galaxies, which are thought to have had their…
By combining surface brightness profiles from images taken in the HST/NICMOS F160W and ground-based (GB) $K$ bands, we have obtained NIR profiles for a well studied sample of inclined disk galaxies, spanning radial ranges from 20 pc to a…
In this paper we discuss the reason why the parameters of the Sersic model best-fitting the major axis light profile of elliptical galaxies can differ significantly from those derived for the minor axis profile. We show that this…
{Abridged} We show that the surface brightness (SB) profiles of elliptical galaxies can be parametrized using a linear superposition of 2-3 components, described by functions developed in Dhar & Williams as the 2D projections of a 3D…
Popular models for describing the luminosity-density profiles of dynamically hot stellar systems (e.g., Jaffe, Hernquist, Dehnen) were constructed with the desire to match the deprojected form of an R^{1/4} light-profile. Real galaxies,…
New surface photometry of all known elliptical galaxies in the Virgo cluster is added to published data to derive composite profiles over large dynamic ranges. Sersic functions fit them remarkably well. Effective brightnesses and radii are…
We analyze Hubble Space Telescope surface-brightness profiles of 61 elliptical galaxies and spiral bulges (hot galaxies). Luminous hot galaxies have cuspy cores with steep outer power-law profiles that break at r ~ r_b to shallow inner…
We explore similarities in the luminosity distribution of early type galaxies and the mass profiles of LCDM halos. The spatial structure of these systems may be accurately described by a simple law where the logarithmic slope of the…
Dynamical systems in equilibrium have a stationary entropy; we suggest that elliptical galaxies, as stellar systems in a stage of quasi-equilibrium, may have a unique specific entropy. This uniqueness, a priori unknown, should be reflected…
We analyze HST+WFPC2 images of 77 early-type galaxies. Brightness profiles are classed into "core" or "power-law" forms. Cores are typically rounder than power-law galaxies. Nearly all power-laws with central ellipticity >=0.3 have stellar…
We present surface photometry for the central regions of a sample of 33 early-type (E, S0, and S0/a) galaxies observed at 1.6 microns (H band) using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We employ a new technique of two-dimensional fitting to…
We combine the results from several HST investigations of the central structure of early-type galaxies to generate a large sample of parameterized surface photometry. The studies included were those that used the "Nuker law" to characterize…
For a sample of 22 core ellipticals and 22 power law ellipticals, I examine the apparent axis ratios of isophotes as a function of the dynamical time at the isophote's mean radius. The two types of elliptical galaxy have a significantly…
We analyse HST surface brightness profiles for 143 early-type galaxies in the Virgo and Fornax Clusters. Sersic models provide accurate descriptions of the global profiles with a notable exception: the observed profiles deviate…
Motivated by recent developments in our understanding of the formation and evolution of massive galaxies, we explore the detailed photometric structure of a representative sample of 94 bright, nearby elliptical galaxies, using high-quality…